Indie extreme metal support blog

Interview with Parasite Inc. – New masterpiece Dead And Alive!

It's been a long time to hear you about the new release since the successful official first album “Time Tears Down” was out. (Yeah, we, your early fans still want to clarify that “Parasite Inc.” is the original first album.) Anyway, l'm totally blown away with the new album “Dead And Alive”! Even though it's a pre-final-mix version so far, it sounds total punchy and deep already. Could you tell me about the plan for the mastering process?

Kai: Yes we are currently waiting for the mastering which is done by Fascination Street Studios in Sweden. After the long work on the album we are really excited for the outcome.

The album title sounds like Schrödinger's Cat for me, haha... Joke aside, you guys kept silence about the new album for a long time. So, I can say you were almost dead, but you're going to come back to the scene with the killer second album. Yes, you are alive. Does the title actual point out about the band, or a summary of the album?

Kai: Haha, indeed. The album title relates to what we went through within the last years. There was always a lot of work behind the curtain and everything felt alive for us but to the outside there wasn’t much happening and the more time passed by the more people started to wonder if there will be another album at all. In some moments I was even not sure by myself if we can make another album happen.

Phew, sounds tough but I’m happy with the fact that you made the killer new album! Well, you guys (Kai & Benni) are very talented artists for graphical design as well. You guys managed the amazing album art, right? How did you come up with the idea?

Kai: As for Time Tears Down, Benni was responsible for the artwork again and it took over 300 hours to render the artwork alone. I can’t reveal it yet but the artwork will basically show a mechanical heart that stands for the band and it shows some elements that connect to the title “Dead and Alive”.

Yeah, the art is absolutely professional and your fans will love it! As I mentioned above, the new album “Dead And Alive” blew me away with the non-stoppable killer 11 tracks including an intro and a cover song. I’d love to ask you track by track details. So why don’t we start from the first track “Countershock”? The short intro is obviously connected to the epic album art with the sound effects and its title. Could you tell us the hidden meaning in the title once you told me a couple of days ago?

Kai: “Countershock” describes the process of an electric shock getting applied to the heart to terminate a disturbance of its rhythm. In relation to the artwork the track represents our idea to get our new album started after the long time of silence.

The second track “Once And For All” is totally appropriate for the first main song of the album. I can feel your rage, power and passion from the fast and punchy track. It could be a new flagship song for the band. Can you describe the song for the fans who are total eager for your new album?

Kai: “Once and For All” was the first song I wrote for the album. The first 1,5 years after the initial release of “Time Tears Down” were very stressful in several ways and on some points I got that feeling that I don't have the power anymore for being in a band. The song was meant to be a kickstarter to myself, to keep going and not giving up.

The metal fans who witnessed latest Parasite Inc’s shows must know “This World” already. This song is one of my most favorites in the album with the heavy tone and the cool lyrics! Your buddies from Bloodspot joined the gang-shouts, right? How did you arrange the recording with them?

Kai: Oh, that was a spontaneous thing. They played at the Metal Christmas festival on Christmas 2017, so I just took the chance and asked them and it was awesome that they joined the session and contributed to that song.

What was on your mind when you were working on the ironic but cool lyrics?

Kai: Uh, I felt a lot of frustration and hate for some happenings and individuals in the world and then I recognized that my own feelings and thoughts basically didn't make any difference compared to these people. The conclusion was kinda that we, the crown of the evolution, are far away from behaving like that.

The track 4 is another in-your-face song: “Fall Of The Idealist”. It’s obvious that the whole album has stronger and heavier sound than the previous album and that is why I’m crazy about it! What did you want to tell via this song?

Kai: Fall Of The Idealist is a song about letting go of your ideals. Ideals can give you structure and help you going through the days. However, not all ideals are doing well to you and on some point you should reflect and rethink them.

Here we go with the fastest kickass track “Headfuck Rollercoaster”! I feel this one has the most typical Parasite Inc style and every PI fans would love it. In the chorus part, I even feel like ‘Yeah, that’s Parasite Bodom!’, haha. What do you feel about the song?

Kai: Ha, great. Everyone who already had the chance to listen to it told me the same. Personally, I have a love hate relationship with the song. I like that pushing atmosphere but the opening riff always bothers me since it’s difficult to play on my guitar. Need some extra rounds of practice with that one for sure.

You used many digital sci-fi sound effects like Transformers movies in the album. It boosts up your modern melodeath color and makes difference from “Time Tears Down”. Why did you give that sprinkles to the album?

Kai: Oh we had these sounds already on Time Tears Down but we gave them more presence this time. It's fun to use effects and keyboard stuff and I like to spice up the songs with it.

Heaviness is a distinctive matter in the album for sure. “Flesh Decadence” is one of the great heavy and furious pieces. Why are you so angry all the time? Joke aside, I think you’ve been dealing with themes like ‘degraded humanity’ or ‘machinery society’ for your music. Could you tell us your thoughts about your anger in the lyrics?

Kai: Well, why is it okay to eat a cow or a cat but it's not okay to eat a human? At the end of the day it are all living creatures, with a beating heart, red blood and the wish to live and to exist, right? “Flesh Decadence” deals with the question about our ethical and cultural values and rules how we justify our meat consume.

Agree! And the next song “Red Wine Collider” is another favorite for me and I’m curious about the distinct title. “Collider” gives me some images of quantum mechanics, haha, but why red wine?

Kai: The origin of the name came with the song itself. It’s an old ritual of me to get some inspiration for the lyrics with a glass of red wine while listening to the music. But with that song I got writing blockade and ended up having a couple of bottles somehow, haha. So the song worked as a “collider” to me in terms of my wine consume.

Comparing with typical Parasite Inc style, “Sunset Overdrive” sounds something new. It has positive and nostalgic vibe and I feel good with the mood. How do you feel about the song?

Kai: Sunset Overdrive is my favourite song on the album. After all the heavy stuff and especially after the more complex “Red Wine Collider” it was great to have a “no brainer” song without complex arrangements and just some light mood.

“Cold Silent Hell” just stands for headbangers for sure! I love it especially with the first and second verses because of the heaviness! You should add this song to your regular live set-list seriously. How about your opinion?

Kai: Agreed, the song has some heavy shit going on and a decent guitar battle. I'm excited to try it live with Dominik.

Here comes the Parasite Inc’s new anthem “Dead And Alive”! This one should be played at live as well! The song is really exciting not only with the killer tune but also with the epic gang-shout by some of New Wave of German Metal buddies (Bloodspot, Soulbound, All Will Know and Burden Of Life)! Could you tell us any episode about the recording session?

Kai: Yeah, it was super chaotic and in hurry, haha. I remember that we scheduled the session around 12:00 a.m. the day after the Metal Christmas festival in Bielefeld. But I first didn’t find the way and got late, then we couldn’t get into the rehearsal room because no one of the Soulbound guys had a key to their own room and last but not least the guys from All Will Know were missing their band register and got late as well. So things went not as planned but we somehow made it and it was a lot of fun though. We are really happy that our friends contributed their time and voices to our new album. Thanks a lot guys!

Hahaha, sounds chaotic but great outcome! Well, to tell you the truth, I’m totally not familiar with the cover bonus track! (Unfortunately, I can’t utter the title of the track so far though.) Is it a hit pop-song around 80’s or 90’s or so?

Kai: Oh it's actually a newer song that I found last year. I can't reveal much about it but it was pretty fun to do that cover and turn a 80s synth pop song into a punk metal number.

It seems 80’s pop-culture is a trend these days for example “Ready Player One”(Spielberg’s movie) or “Stranger Things”(TV drama). Did you get some influence from the trend for the album?

Kai: Yeah, seems like the 80’s pop culture got some revival these days. Though I didn’t get any influence from what you mentioned. As you know I’m a kid of the 80’s and my earliest memories are like watching cartoons and series from that time. So this was always was a part of me and even on Time Tears Down there are 80’s metal influences and even movie based samples. At the time we finished Time Tears Down I was already playing around with that classical 80’s synthesizers, so it’s rather a natural process to us than a trend thing.

On the bonus track, I recognized Johnny from Soulbound did a great job with his bravery clean singing. And I remember once you gave your epic growls for “Neverland” on Soulbound’s album “Myllennium”. How was the reunion with Johnny?

Kai: Working with Johnny was a lot of fun. When I did the first demo for the bonus track I soon felt like that his vocals would be a perfect addition to our version of the song.

Your only one official music video “Pulse Of The Dead” from the previous album got a big success. Do you have any plan for a new clip from “Dead And Alive” so far?

Kai: Indeed we are planning on a new video or more. We have a bunch of ideas about at the moment we can’t plan anything without knowing our budget for that.

Well, we should talk about a very important thing now –crowdfunding! What do you want from the financial project?

Kai: We’ve started a campaign for our new record on May 11th..Usually we are not that kind of band that asks their fans for help because we basically want to give and not to take. But with the goal to make “Dead and Alive” better than its predecessor we came to our financial limits and paying the entire production on our own became no option. So we decided to ask our fans for help to deliver them the new record in the best way possible.

Do you have any message to your fans who want to support Parasite Inc. through the crowdfunding?

Kai: Thanks a lot to everyone out there who has supported us so far. We feel totally proud and thankful to have such a supportive fan base and friends! The funding is running until June 10th, so if you missed that we are doing it, you can still help us here and get some specials in return: Parasite Inc Crowdfunding!

Okay, it's gonna be the final question. You guys will be back on stage at Summer Breeze Open Air this year, right? So, will it be the album release party for you?

Kai: Indeed “Dead and Alive” is going to be released on this year’s Summer Breeze festival and we are happy to be able to celebrate it with a release show there. We are totally looking forward to that.